Xanthe Clay talks to Yotam Ottolenghi about his new TV show
Ottolenghi’s Mediterranean Feast on More4

When the cafe-cum-takeaway Ottolenghi opened in London’s Westbourne Grove in 2001, it was a revelation. The beautifully coloured salads arranged on the counter like a buffet made in heaven, tasted fresh, complex and tangy, like nothing we’d eaten before.

It quickly acquired a cult following, and three more branches opened, along with plenty of imitators. Then in 2008 came the hugely successful Ottolenghi cookbook, and the middle classes took pomegranate molasses, sumac and za’atar to their hearts and their store cupboards. For Yotam Ottolenghi, it was just the start. A national newspaper column followed along with further books – Plenty and, last month, Jerusalem.

Last year he brought his gentle, intelligent style to our TV screens, presenting the award-winning BBC Four documentary Jerusalem. Now he is back with a four-part series, Ottolenghi’s Mediterranean Feast, on More4.

When we meet, he arrives looking tall and elegant. He’s wearing a pink open-necked shirt and jeans, has perfect manners and a generous smile. He’s also very calm for a man about to embark on a tour of the States to promote the new book.

London is not the obvious choice of home for an Israeli-born son of an Italian father and German mother. So how did we Brits attract a man whose food inspires cooks all over the world? “I never planned to come here,” admits Ottolenghi. “But London just sucks you in.”

Related Articles

He arrived initially in 1997 aged 29, with his then partner, simply to do a course at the Cordon Bleu Cookery School. But after taking jobs as a pastry chef at some of London’s best restaurants, including The Capital and Launceston Place, he ended up at one of the emerging breed of artisan bakers, Baker and Spice, where he met his culinary and business partner Sami Tamimi, a Palestinian Israeli. They went on to found the Ottolenghi business with fellow Israeli Noam Bar, choosing Yotam’s surname because it sounded best.

Specifically, it was London’s open-mindedness that appealed, he remembers. “It just hugs every possible food trend there is in a very genuine way, and no other European capital does that. Everyone else is so chauvinistic about their food. That ability to do what I want to do and be so well received – I guess that is what kept me here.”

Tel Aviv is one of the four cities that Ottolenghi will visit in the programmes, along with Marrakesh, Istanbul, and Tunis, exploring the history and culture through the food. The destinations were chosen, says Ottolenghi, because they were ancient places “where the Arab world meets the West”.

Each recipe, four or five per programme, will be available online and possibly at a later stage on the newly launched Ottolenghi recipe app.

For the man himself, though, it is the opportunity to explore that appealed most while making the series. “The most important thing for me is to walk the little alleys of the city, to find the little alcove where someone is cooking something and just watch them do it. That’s my idea of fun.”

There are plenty of colourful people to watch, such as the opinionated septuagenarian Egyptian lady stall-holder in Tel Aviv who “hates modern chefs” or the Sudanese man who bakes tangias – casserole-filled jars – in the fire of a Marrakesh hammam (public wash house) and sings beautifully. “You meet these people who are extreme characters and really stand for something when it comes to food.”

Ottolenghi’s respect for the other cooks he meets is apparent, and he enjoyed walking into kitchens and asking questions.

“I love learning from people. This is my real passion. I really don’t think I have anything to teach these old folks. They know perfectly well what they are doing. I only can learn from them.”

Doing recipes straight to camera was harder. “The teaching thing, the one where I have to impart my knowledge, is probably what comes the least naturally to me because I’m an absorber of things. But after a while you realise the nature of the medium and then you just sort of latch on to it.”

There is plenty to share food- wise, with new discoveries like Tunisian scented geranium water, made the same way as orange flower water or rose water, and used in sauces and desserts. “That was a little revelation.”

There are also new ways with familiar ingredients, such as the use of cumin and salt as a dip for slow-cooked lamb in Morocco, which inspired one of his recipes. It sounds very simple, I remark, raising an eyebrow. Ottolenghi agrees, laughing at my dig at his reputation for long lists of hard-to-find ingredients.

“Yes, it was too simple for me. Over here it’s very difficult to get ingredients of that quality, and neither the mutton nor the cumin are going to have that level of flavour, so you know you need to enhance it a little.” Or, to put it another way, give it a little bit of Ottolenghi magic.

Ottolenghi’s Mediterranean Feast begins on More4 on Monday 12 November at 9.00pm